Machines such as, for example, dozers, motor graders, wheel loaders, wheel tractor scrapers, and other types of heavy equipment are used to perform a variety of tasks. Autonomously and semi-autonomously controlled machines are capable of operating with little or no human input by relying on information received from various machine systems. For example, based on machine movement input, terrain input, and/or machine operational input, a machine can be controlled to remotely and/or automatically complete a programmed task. On minesites or other worksites, a plurality of such machines may be operated either autonomously or by vehicle operators physically present inside the machines. To increase safety on such minesites, operators of these machines need to be aware of the behavior of other machines operating around them. For example, operators of these machines need to be aware of whether or not their machine is following or is being followed by another machine and whether a safe distance exists between their machine and other machines.
An exemplary system that may be used to monitor a distance between two vehicles is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,686 (“the '686 patent”) to Takano et al. that issued on Mar. 18, 1997. The system of the '686 patent sets predefined areas in front of a vehicle and detects whether another vehicle enters those predefined areas. If another vehicle enters the predefined areas, the system of the '686 patent initiates an alarm urging the operator to initiate a braking operation.
Although the system of the '686 patent may be useful in warning machine operators of the presence of other machines in their vicinity, the '686 patent system may not be ideal for worksites such as minesites where many machines operate simultaneously on tracks that may not be well defined. For example, the system of the '686 patent may sound an alarm to the operator as soon as another machine enters a predefined area in front of the operator's machine. Such a warning may not be required and in fact may be a nuisance because the other machine may soon leave the vicinity of the operator's machine and hence, there may not be a real collision threat. Further, the system of the '686 patent may not take into account future predicted positions of the machine in setting the predefined areas.
The traffic analysis system of the present disclosure is directed toward solving one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.